On Monday afternoon, Jerry Brown, the Democrat governor of California, declared states of emergency for the Clayton fire and another in San Luis Obispo County, the so-called Chimney fire, allowing local officials to get help from emergency response agencies statewide. It initially spread southeast and by late Saturday night had grown to 900 acres, threatening some 200 homes with about 500 residents evacuated. Fire is out of control right now, multiple structures are threatened.
Advertisement
The Lower Lake fire broke out Saturday afternoon and exploded to almost 5 square miles as it fed on bone-dry vegetation.
CAL FIRE’s incident information page showed almost 1,700 firefighters, 200 fire engines and 12 helicopters were engaged in the battle against the blaze.
The Clayton fire was preceded this summer by a rash of fires near highways in the Clearlake area that destroyed some homes, caused power outages and subjected residents to repeated evacuation orders.
The town was near the site where the fire began. Some used hoses or water from their pools to try to protect their houses.
Other than a pair of large blazes in the 1960s, which destroyed far fewer homes in a county that had just one-quarter its current 64,000 residents, lifelong resident and county supervisor Jim Comstock can’t remember anything approaching the past year. He used a hose to wet down his roof.
“It’s emotionally turbulent. At times I’m in tears, at other times I’m making jokes like, ‘I really did hate that green couch in the living room, ‘ ” she said. “The wind can just change”. “But this is my grandfather’s house, and I’m not going to lose it”.
Phaedra Phelps had the same thought after hearing the flames roared to life and rushed back from the store Sunday.
Sherwin says some structures have already burned, but it hasn’t yet been determined whether any of them were homes.
Corrections department spokeswoman Vicky Waters said Tuesday that 40-year-old Damin Anthony Pashilk of Clearlake was completing a five-year sentence when he was assigned to fight wildfires from April through July 2007.
The fire forced a shutdown of Interstate 15, leaving commuters stranded for hours.
According to the Cal Fire website Tuesday, firefighters were battling 16 fires in the state, including the huge Soberanes Fire that has burned 76,000 acres, destroyed 57 homes and 11 outbuildings, and killed one person and injured three others.
Six firefighters protecting homes were briefly trapped by flames and in serious danger before they took shelter in a safe structure, the San Bernardino County Fire Department said in a statement.
“They’ve seen it before”, Pittman told the Chronicle.
Advertisement
Vet and animal rescue groups have set up an evacuation center for animals hurt or left homeless in the blaze rampaging through California’s wildfire tired Lake County.
